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Metro stations have become a crucial aspect of urban rail transportation, integrating facilities, equipment and pedestrians. Impractical physical layout designs and pedestrian psychology impact the effectiveness of an evacuation during a metro fire. Prior research on emergency evacuation has overlooked the complexity of metro stations and failed to adequately consider the physical heterogeneity of stations and pedestrian psychology. Therefore, this study aims to develop a comprehensive evacuation optimization strategy for metro stations by applying the concept of design for safety (DFS) to an emergency evacuation. This approach offers novel insights into the management of complex systems in metro stations during emergencies.

Physical and social factors affecting evacuations are identified. Moreover, the social force model (SFM) is modified by combining the fire dynamics model (FDM) and considering pedestrians' impatience and panic psychology. Based on the Nanjing South Metro Station, a multiagent-based simulation (MABS) model is developed. Finally, based on DFS, optimization strategies for metro stations are suggested.

The most effective evacuation occurs when the width of the stairs is 3 meters and the transfer corridor is 14 meters. Additionally, a luggage disposal area should be set up. The exit strategy of the fewest evacuees is better than the nearest-exit strategy, and the staff in the metro station should guide pedestrians correctly.

Previous studies rarely consider metro stations as sociotechnical systems or apply DFS to proactively reduce evacuation risks. This study provides a new perspective on the evacuation framework of metro stations, which can guide the designers and managers of metro stations.

In this chapter, Jared Thomas, a Nukunu person from the Southern Flinders Ranges and a Research Fellow at the South Australian Museum and University of South Australia, reflects on his efforts to enhance the Fire Exhibit within the Australian Aboriginal Cultures Gallery [AACG], which has not been updated in 20 years. Thomas draws from an international precedent of involving Indigenous communities in museum displays.

The author outlines the limitations of renovations in terms of budget, space, and Indigenous protocols, while considering the potential impact of the proposed Tarrkarri Centre for First Nations Culture. He emphasises the importance of fostering relationships between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples, allowing Indigenous voices to speak for themselves.

Thomas focusses on the Fire Exhibit, discussing its significance in Aboriginal culture, the lack of contextualisation, and the need for improved representation. He proposes short-term actions such as adding QR-code-based text for context, and long-term ambitions like incorporating audio-visual and augmented reality elements. He highlights the importance of Aboriginal fire land management practices, especially in the aftermath of the 2019 Australian bushfires.

Thomas proposes strengthening the exhibit’s connection to foods, medicines, and fixatives that benefit from cultural burning. He envisions collaboration with the Adelaide Botanic Gardens and acknowledges the resource constraints faced by the museum. He concludes by envisioning a template for extending improvements across the museum and fostering better understanding and representation of Aboriginal culture.

Due to the impact of the pandemic that enforced mass closures and lock downs, galleries, libraries, archives, and museums [GLAM] institutions around the world were required to re-think how they interacted with the public. As a result of the measures that enforced isolation, distancing, and increased hygiene requirements, the usefulness of virtual technologies as a storytelling medium has come into sharper focus. This chapter will explore the emergence of augmented reality as a viable post-COVID-19 solution to meaningful digital narrative creation and user interaction in the museum environment. This chapter will concentrate on the development of a project between the University of South Australia [UniSA] and the South Australian Museum [SAM] to explore how it might be possible to create sustainable immersive stories within this environment.

The purpose of this study is to develop optimal evacuation plan to provide valuable theoretical and practical insight in the fire evacuation work of similar structures, by proposing a systematic simulation-based guided-evacuation agent-based model (GAM) and a three-stage mathematical evacuation model to investigate how to simulate, assess and improve the performance efficiency of the evacuation plan.

The authors first present the self-evacuation and guided-evacuation models to determine the optimal evacuation plan in ship chamber. Three key performance indicators are put forward to quantitatively assess the evacuation performance within the two fire scenarios. The evacuation model in tower is built to obtain the dividing points of the three different fire evacuation plans.

The study shows that the optimal evacuation plan determined by the GAM considering social relationships effectively relieves the congestion or collision of evacuees and improves the evacuation uniformity. The optimal evacuation plan not only solves the crush caused by congestion or collision of evacuees but also can greatly shorten the evacuation time for passenger ship fire.

This study establishes the GAM considering the interactive evacuee characteristics and the proportion of evacuees guided by the crew members to make the optimal evacuation plan more time-efficient. The self-evacuation process is simulated to assess the performance of the guided-evacuation strategies, which are used to verify the effectiveness and feasibility of the optimal evacuation plan in this research.

We show that, in the US telecommunications industry, market participants have a sophisticated understanding of the political process, and behave strategically in their allocation of contributions to state legislators as if seeking to purchase influence over regulatory policy. We find that interests respond defensively to contributions from rivals, take into account the configuration of support available to them in both the legislature and the regulatory commission, and vary their contributions according to variations in relative costs for influence by different legislatures. This strategic behavior supports a theory that commercially motivated interests contribute campaign resources in order to mobilize legislators to influence the decisions of regulatory agencies. We also report evidence that restrictions on campaign finance do not affect all interests equally. The paper therefore provides positive evidence on the nature and effects of campaign contributions in regulated industries where interest group competition may be sharp.

Recently important changes have been made to fire service management practices in Australia; however, these changes have typically not been based on empirical research or followed up by systematic evaluation. While job satisfaction and leadership behaviour have been extensively investigated in other fields, studies of these variables in the fire service, particularly in Australia, are almost absent. This article examines links between job satisfaction and leadership behaviour in aviation fire fighters. Fifty‐six fire fighters responded to the Job Descriptive Index and the Leadership Behaviour Questionnaire XII. As hypothesised, employee job satisfaction correlated with supervisor leadership behaviour, with the exception of consideration leadership and co‐worker satisfaction. A new explanation, concerning level of team interaction, is proposed for the findings. Implications for the fire service and areas for further research are suggested.

There is an acute shortage of infrastructure to deal with fire hazard in big cities in Pakistan. Consequently, fire hazard poses a serious threat to economic and social activites in these cities. Unfortunately, the scale of this threat is not fully recognised in Pakistan despite the fact that recent fire incidences in different cities of Pakistan have resulted in considerable economic and life losses. The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a survey which was conducted in one of the largest cities of Pakistan to determine the nature and level of this threat. A critical evaluation of available resources with the Fire Brigade Department (FBD) to deal with the fire hazard in the city confirmed a lack of infrastructure facilities and adequate training. A conceptual framework model for fire risk management is proposed to reduce the level of this threat.

This study is based on a survey of fire exposed buildings in Karachi (one of the largest cities of Pakistan) and the analysis of available resources and infrastructure of FBD. A total of 13 sites were visited and interviews were conducted. Fire stations in the city were visited and an inventory of available resources was prepared. The data of fire incidents and human and economic losses were collected and analysed. Based on the findings, a conceptual framework model was suggested for fire risk management in the city.

The survey of the fire exposed structures indicated that negligence, violation of building codes, unawareness of safety measures, carelessness, and lack of training were the major causes of fire incidents. An acute shortage of facilities and infrastructure for fire fighting was noted. The recording mechanism of data related to fire incidents was found to be inadquate.

The paper is a small but original contribution to identify a potential hazard which is faced by the businesses and community in the city. This is the first attempt (to the best of authors’ knowledge) to mitigate the effects of fire hazard.

The suggested model can be employed by the authorities as a guideline to mitigate fire hazard in the country.

The paper provides valuable information on the fire incidents and human and economic losses in Pakistan. The suggested model can become helpful in reducing fire hazard in Pakistan.